Spiffy:

Iffy:

Capcom's coy about any home console release plans.

If you've been playing games for a while, you probably remember what it was like to spend the majority of your waking hours in an arcade. Think back: how many quarters did you spend on Ms. Pac-man or Mortal Kombat? Thanks to the rise in popularity of powerful game consoles and nuclear-powered PCs (as well as genres that don't fit snugly in the traditional arcade mold), the arcade has essentially gone the way of the dodo in North America. However, that's not to say that there aren't any more major or groundbreaking arcade releases on the horizon. At the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we had a chance to spend some time with the highly-anticipated Street Fighter IV, a title that will likely (please note that we can't promise anything!) also appear on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Street Fighter IV was running on two networked arcade cabinets, although we did notice that each cabinet had two sets of joysticks and buttons, meaning you'll probably be able to play locally on a single machine. As we watched others play the game from across the room, we couldn't help noticing that the stages looked a lot like some in the previous Street Fighter games. We were told by one of the producers that the team decided to use familiar stages as the inspiration for some new ones, something that was immediately apparent when we took a look at the East African airfield and the East Asian marketplace. There was little doubt that these were based on Guile and Chun Li's Street Fighter II levels, respectively.

After a brief wait, it was finally our turn to play. Given my love of all things old school, I decided to pass on checking out the new characters to take some of my old favorites for a spin. From the moment the action began, it became clear that Capcom didn't want to risk alienating any of the longtime Street Fighter II fans. I was able to pull off all of the familiar moves with the classic characters, from Blanka's shocking electric blast to Zangief's spinning punches. Essentially, if you remember the moves from Street Fighter II, you'll feel instantly comfortable with Street Fighter IV.

However, that's not to say that the team at Capcom didn't add some new features to spice things up a bit. They actually culled some gameplay mechanics from other titles in the franchise's history. Super moves are back again, and can be pulled off once you've filled up the appropriate gauge by pummeling your enemy. That's not the only gauge on the screen, however, as there's now one that will fill up when you're the one being pounded. Called the Revenge meter, it actually comes into play when you decide to unleash a match-altering Ultra combo.